descinge

Forms

a descinge (third-person singular present descinge, past participle descins, third-person subjunctive descingă; 3rd conjugation)^[1]

Etymology

DELR, MDA2, DEX and the DLR take it as inherited from Latin discingō (“to ungird”), from dis- and cingō (“to gird”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} DELR compares Italian discingere, Old French déceindre, Occitan descenher, Catalan descenyir, Spanish desceñir and Portuguese descingir.^[2] It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian distsingu.^[2][6][7]

According to DELR the first form, ⟨deștinge⟩, shows the regular outcome /ʃt/ of Latin /sk/ before /i/.^[2] It was replaced early by ⟨deșcinge⟩ and later ⟨descinge⟩, modelled on încinge, so as not to be confused with ⟨deștinde⟩ “to descend”, from dēscendō.^[2] The variant ⟨deșchinge⟩ was influenced by chingă “girth”.^[2]

DER thinks it must be a Romanian compound, and Tiktin, the CADE and Scriban derive it from ⟨încinge⟩.^[8][2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is deștinge in Varlaam's Cazania of 1643.^[2][3] Tiktin's first record is in Dosoftei (1681), who often writes deșcinge.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The verb means taking off a belt or girdle, and also a weapon worn at the waist.^[2] Tiktin quotes an old chronicle on a man being ungirded of his sword, „îl descing de sabie”.^[9] MDA2 records an old figurative sense “to lose one's honour, one's boyar rank or one's freedom”, from the ungirding of a disgraced man.^[3] Latin discingō already had the sense of ungirding a soldier as a punishment.^[5]

Timeline

• 1643 – deștinge in Varlaam's Cazania.^[2][3]
• 1681 – Dosoftei, with deșcinge.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To take off or unbuckle one's belt or girdle.^[4][3][1]
2. (reflexive, of a belt) To come undone: i s-a descins brâul “his belt came undone”.^[4][9]
3. To take off the weapons worn at the belt; to disarm.^[3]
4. (obsolete) To lose one's honour, rank or freedom.^[3]

Related words

• încinge
• cinge
• Aromanian distsingu

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. descinge
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 657
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 296
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 401
7. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 405
8. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. cinge
9. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. descinge